George Burmeister
President: Colorado Energy Group.
Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, CEG was founded in 1997 in Washington, DC. CEG has satellite offices in Sacramento, CA, Stockton, CA, Dallas, TX and Washington, DC. CEG is a customer-focused leading energy advisor to governments, utilities, home builders, developers and energy efficiency and renewable energy technology providers and suppliers. It is recognized for its strong emphasis on market-based solutions and for inspiring elected and senior career government officials to take extraordinary steps toward more sustainable policies and practices—especially in the natural gas, energy efficiency and renewable energy areas.
Mr. Burmeister is respected on both sides of the aisle, having served as a senior political appointee for U.S. President Bill Clinton between 1993 and 1996, and later serving as Communications Director of the Congressionally- created State Energy Advisory Board (STEAB) for the Bush Administration between 2002 and 2004. STEAB provides energy budget guidance to the Administration and Congress.
California’s major investor-owned utilities hired Mr. Burmeister to serve as informal energy staff to more than 120 of the busiest and fastest-growing local governments in California. In addition to helping them with green building and new residential construction issues, he advised these local governments and others on energy assurance, energy efficiency, renewable energy, natural gas, energy security and critical infrastructure protection (CIP) issues. He continues to advise many of these governments.
After his political appointment in the Clinton Administration and prior to leaving Washington, Mr. Burmeister served as Policy Director of the National Association of State Energy Officials (NASEO) and Executive Director of Americans for Clean Energy (aka "the Solar Lobby") in Washington before returning home to Colorado in 1999. He helped manage the Energy Program at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) for three years before that, worked for U.S. Senator Timothy E. Wirth (D, CO), was State Political Director for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Sierra Club, and he worked in private sector sales for a West German firm for seven years before that, working out of Breckenridge, Colorado. He has a BA in Environmental Studies with a Minor in Business Administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas (1981), and a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Colorado (1989).